Yesterday, I wrote about how The Masters is one of my favorite sporting events in the spring. This year, seven of my fellow University of Georgia alumni are competing in this year’s field.
Seven Georgia Bulldogs are in the field at this week’s 89th Masters:
— Dawgs On Tour (@DawgsOnTour) April 10, 2025
- Harris English
- Brian Harman
- Russell Henley
- Chris Kirk
- Sepp Straka
- Davis Thompson
- Bubba Watson (2012 & 2014 Champion)
Side note: I can’t get a straight answer on what college has the most alumni in this year’s tournament. All of the AI sources I checked were like, “Who knows?” Google’s AI even tried to tell me that last year’s champion Scottie Scheffler is a Stanford alum, which isn’t true because he went to Texas. ChatGPT helpfully suggested that I go to the website for The Masters and count all the alumni myself. Gee, thanks. Grok told me that the answer was probably UGA. #GoDawgs
While I’m a fan of all of the Dawgs playing at The Masters, I particularly like to root for Brian Harman because he’s left-handed and short like me (actually, he’s a little shorter than I am). Of course, I love to watch two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson, and I appreciate how outspoken he is about his Christian faith. But there’s one player I want to see succeed: Chris Kirk.
Kirk has been a professional golfer since 2011, and he has six PGA Tour wins under his belt. But in May 2019, he stepped away from the game he loved to deal with depression and alcohol abuse. He announced an indefinite leave but returned six months later.
Last April, he published a video on Instagram celebrating five years of sobriety:
Related: President Trump Issues a Statement as The Masters Tournament Tees Off
He told Golf Digest last year that his addiction to alcohol robbed him of joy in so many areas of his life, including his chosen career:
“I lost the joy of most things in life for awhile there,” Kirk said. “But, yeah, it's certainly back. I think I just love how hard this is. It's so hard to be great at this, and I love the process that it takes. I love the work that it takes to try to be the best version of myself. I definitely have fallen back in love with that process, and sometimes you get rewarded for it, like today, and sometimes you don't. That's just part of the deal. I think to be successful and to really enjoy your life as a PGA Tour player you've got to love the work.”
In addition to the day-to-day work of recovery, Kirk relies on his fellow alumni to help him steer clear of temptation, isolation, and loneliness on the tour. Instead of staying in a hotel alone, Kirk and some of his fellow Bulldogs, like Harman, Sepp Straka, and Brendon Todd, rent houses and hang out together. Other PGA tour players like Denny McCarthy, Keith Mitchell, and Greyson Sigg have ponied up for rooms in the houses as well.
The golfers play competitive games of Yahtzee, sometimes for money, to beat boredom. The players say that staying in the houses together gives them encouragement when they play bad rounds as well. Kirk probably benefited from having friends around him after a struggle on one hole gave him a high score in the first round.
Kirk doesn’t mind having the reputation of the guy who had to step off the tour for a few months to fight depression and alcoholism. On the contrary, he knows that his struggles helped strengthen him and give him a stronger sense of purpose.
“I hope it stays with me forever. It's a huge part of my life still now,” Kirk said. “Definitely the best thing that I've ever done in my life is to get sober. So, I understand what you're saying, that, you know, but I don't feel like it's taking away from anything that I'm accomplishing. It's 100 percent the reason why I'm able to do what I do. I've said that a lot, but there would be—my PGA Tour career would have been over awhile ago, had I not gotten sober. So, yeah, I'm fine with that staying with me for until the day I die.”
It's easy enough for me to root for Kirk because he and I share the same alma mater. But knowing how he’s staying sober and maintaining strong accountability in his recovery makes me want to see him experience even more success.
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